CULTURAL EXCHANGE
International program brings world closer together for foreign students, host families
By Nora Olabi
Every year, high schools in The Woodlands host students from around the world as part of an international exchange program.
The program, called PAX Academic Exchange, works with the U.S. Department of State and other international exchange agencies to place teenagers in high schools across the country for one academic year. During 201516, The Woodlands and
The Woodlands College Park high schools hosted six students from Spain, Germany, Brazil and Switzerland of about 1,100 total students placed nationwide.
The exchange program is attractive to students looking to improve their English language skills, learn more about other cultures and even attend university in the United States. Only 3 percent of the tens of thousands of applicants are accepted into the program each year.
“It’s harder than getting into Harvard,” said Sondra McPoland, PAX regional development manager for South Texas, of the Future Leaders Exchange program, which is sponsored by the United States. The FLEX program is one of a few exchange programs PAX administers.
Dina Ohlemeier is a College Park High School mom. Last year, her family took the leap and became a host family after meeting an exchange student at a friend’s home. The Ohlemeiers went through student profiles and found Juliane, a German high school student. Her last name, city of origin and high school weren’t released due to privacy concerns.
Juliane played in her school band and was the same age as Dina’s daughter. In June of 2015, she touched down at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.
“It’s been a great experience. To me, I feel like we’ve bonded as a family,” Ohlemeier said. “I feel like we’ve made a bond that’s not going to be ‘She was an exchange student in our house for 11 months.’ I feel like we’re going to be family from here on out . ... I hope it’s going to be a longterm relationship between our families.”
At first, Ohlemeier was anxious about hosting an exchange student. She had questions about costs, possible emergency medical expenses and generally living with a stranger. PAX host families and exchange students undergo training prior to housing a student, which covers the rules and expectations for students and host families. Students have their own health insurance, and some are given a small monthly stipend to cover come costs. Others have family who help pay their way. Host families are expected to cover room and board expenses.
All of Ohlemeier’s anxiety dissolved when she finally welcomed Juliane into her new American family. Over the last 10 months, Juliane has been to Disney World, on weekend road trips across the state and as far away as Lubbock to get the full Texas experience. They’ve shared every major holiday with Juliane. She’s like a third child, Ohlemeier said about her exchange student.
“I think we were just apprehensive a little bit about would it be awkward about having someone in our house all the time. You have a guest over, but you’re having a guest over for almost a year. After the first couple days or a week, it didn’t feel like we had a guest in our home anymore. It really was because she was so awesome,” Ohlemeier said.
Just as the Ohlemeiers have shared their home, Juliane has shared her German roots. She especially enjoys cooking and baking German treats, even serving up homemade pretzels, “which were awesome,” Ohlemeier said.
Juliane is enrolled at College Park in Honors third-year English, preAP Chemistry, Spanish, second-year Algebra and entrepreneurship. Although she’s earning high marks in all of her classes, her credits won’t count toward her German high school diploma, but Juliane knew that coming into the PAX program. She wanted to travel, strengthen her English skills and, frankly, to see if American high schools were anything like they were in the movies.
“I was really excited about high school here. I guess it was because of all the movies that make it look so great ... As a kid you watch “High School Musical.” I mean, I know it won’t be like that, it’s just, you see a lot about American high schools,” Juliane said, though it didn’t come as much of a surprise when German and American high school structures weren’t very different. In the United States, she has a little more flexibility to choose her classes.
Juliane is one of the dozens of students McPoland has placed with host families across the state since 2013. McPoland equates the international exchange program with “peace sharing.”
Though families and students come into the program with an open mind, McPoland tries to ensure that families and students are a good fit. Both parties submit detailed interests and preferences — petfriendly, student gender, possible curfews, vegetarian or food preferences, lifestyle, etc. — and she helps connect the two.
“For the most part, (the students) know they’re going to get what they’re going to get. We try to place by interests. So if I have a family who is interested in a particular country, then you start with that,” McPoland said. “Every family is different.”
Most international exchange students are surprised by what they see in Texas. For Juliane, who thought she’d see cowboys, The Woodlands wasn’t all that different from Germany, except for its lack of public transportation. What surprised her the most was how vast and lush everything is in Texas.
“I thought what everyone thinks of Texas, for example, many cowboys. I don’t know, that’s the first thing you think about,” Juliane said.
Although PAX is a way for top international students to learn about American culture, the exchange program is at its core an educational program. Exchange students visit NASA, take part in extracurricular activities at school and are expected to maintain at least a ‘C’ average since they’re learning in a second language; most kids do academically well though.
“We’re not a travel program. We’re an academic program, so the kids who come here are for academics. It’s not so that they can tour America. It’s truly to help them improve their English, become a part of an American family, live as an American high school student and study as an American high school student. Those are all important values for us,” McPoland said.
Though six students made it to The Woodlands for this school year, 2016-17 is shaping up to be a more difficult year for international exchange students in the area. Only one host family has been confirmed, meaning only one student can come to the community. Sandra from Germany is expected to fly into Houston in June and stay with Melissa Aguayo, a working mother of two at The Woodlands High School. The Aguayos will be a first-time host family, too, this year. She’s already using Skype and Snapchat to connect with Sandra and make her feel at home before she makes the 10hour flight to Texas.
“Just living in other cultures and experiencing it makes you a better person, and the family you live with become better people,” Aguayo said. “It opens up the world in ways you haven’t seen before.”
McPoland is open to placing more international exchange students with willing and eligible host families. She has worked with Magnolia, Pearland and Cypress-Fairbanks ISDs among other school districts in the greater Houston area.